Tea Time
by Ferret's Earmuffs
Summary: Stuck in a car with three bored teenagers and a clueless alien, Raven finds herself in an uncomfortable predicament.


This is mostly just a practice exercise for school, so the writing style is a little different than I'm used to.

Hope you enjoy.

**Disclaimer  
**If the Titans weren't mine  
The last time I came  
And you think they are now  
Then I think you're insane

* * *

**Tea Time**

In the middle of nowhere, on a long dusty road, cruising at speeds much too fast for comfort, the T-car rolled up a storm cloud of deadly dust. Its occupants, glad for a much needed vacation, expressed their views on the trip in ways suited only to each individual.

Inside the car was cool due to the open status of many windows. Air rushed into the interior, brushing along the faces of each super powered teen as they traveled to their destination. A quiet, gentle rhythm issued from the stereo, compromising for varying interests in music and drastic differences in personality. In the middle back seat though, Beast Boy fidgeted in annoyance at the boring tune.

The Titans were more or less content, even though the monotonous journey had already lasted three hours and the boys were starting to get restless. Starfire giggled as she hummed tunelessly and thought to herself, while Raven… well Raven glared out the window, legs crossed and arms folded over her chest.

She hadn't exactly objected to the _vacation_. No, but the trip itself was something of a bother.

Next to her she noticed Beast Boy shift again, his legs slipping into her own personal space, diverting her attention from the window. She glanced down briefly before pulling her cloak further away from his fidgeting form, eager to keep it from getting stuck underneath his pathetically girly legs. Her slim fingers tapped silently on the seat, hidden between her lithe figure and the car door.

Her gaze traced the dashboard of Cyborg's car, landing on the digital clock and straying for a moment before shifting back out the window.

Three hours. She hadn't expected to be in the car three whole hours without the relief of being free from Beast Boy. He was a nice enough guy, but his incessant joke telling was wearing out her patience like a cheap pair of shoes. She'd taken to responding with a "No," as soon as his mouth twitched, to avoid the grating sound of his voice on her already stretched nerves.

She shifted her weight a little, taking the time to move a little closer to the door (and coincidentally further away from the green changeling). Her foot twitched in irritation.

Three hours. And she'd had all that tea for breakfast.

Oh, but she needed the tea. If Raven went without it, even once, it was disaster on the road. Well maybe not disaster, but definitely not pretty. With the high speeds, and the bumpy ground shaking her body relentlessly… Though she had to question whether the jostling of her stomach would have been worse than the jostling she was feeling now. As she clenched her jaw in a tight grimace, she certainly couldn't imagine it.

It was quite the predicament she was in: Raven wasn't one to draw attention to herself, so the question that was forming in her mind had to endure a profound mental judging. To ask, or not to ask…

An unexpected bump on the road made up her mind for her.

Her head shifted to glance at the other occupants of the back seat. Beast Boy stared out the front through half-lidded eyes, his thumbs wrestling each other halfheartedly on his lap. Next to him Starfire watched the sky outside her window. Her orange tinted hand waved happily at passing birds and critters of the earth.

It was so damned quiet! She resisted the urge to growl in annoyance and instead bit her lip and glared at Beast Boy. That wasn't suspicious, right? Did she actually _need_ a reason to glare at Beast Boy? Reason dictated she did, but reason had no place in her predicament.

Beast Boy's ear twitched and he shifted his gaze to the girl sitting next to him. His eyes flickered fear, and then irritation. "Did I do something wrong?"

Raven blushed and looked away. "No."

"Then why were you looking at me like that? God Raven, do you hate me or something?"

"No, I just-"

"Is it easy to pick on me then? Come on Raven tell me! I'm sick of this _I'm better and smarter than you_ attitude! It sickens me! Why can't you just treat me like a normal person for once?"

Okay, so he was short fused at the moment. If she wasn't so distracted she probably could have picked up on that and avoided this whole confrontation. "Look, I'm sorry," she said. "I just-"

"No, don't bother. It's not gonna change anything!"

By this point the other occupants had turned in their seats to watch the heated argument. Robin had a French fry sticking out of the corner of his mouth, masked eyes open into pools of white. Cyborg was shifting his gaze from the street to the rearview mirror and back, trying to take in two things at once while Starfire looked both confused and intrigued.

Beast Boy growled deeply. "I'm really tired of this same thing over and over again!"

"Look, I-"

"Why do you always pick on me? All I ever do is try to make you laugh!"

"Will you just-"

"And you never do! It's like all the work I put into doing good deeds for you goes down the drain! Bye-bye! Raven's the one flushing them _down_ the toilet!"

Oh, he had to bring _toilets_ into it. She shifted her legs again and clenched one hand beneath her cloak. "Beast Boy-"

"And it never ends! God Raven, try being nice for once! Maybe you don't feel any emotion, but the rest of us do!"

"Beast Boy, look, I'm Sorry! I have to pee okay?!"

Her uncharacteristic outburst was followed by silence. Everyone was still for a moment, until the car jerked violently, forcing Cyborg to bring it back onto the road and Raven to grip her seat in uncomfortable desperation.

Raven watched, face flushed, as the shock wore off of Beast Boy's face and was replaced by a dangerous glint in his eye. He licked his lips mischievously, bringing his fingers up to his chin in a gesture of mock-thought. He looked forward, communicating something to Cyborg that Raven desperately wished she could understand.

A dangerous dread seeped its way into Raven mind: she'd provided the bored men with _entertainment_.

"You know Raven," Beast Boy drawled. "I think the next stop's more than half an hour away. Is that right Cy?"

God, they were going to _torture_ her to pass the time?

"You might just be right BB. It's not that long, though I'm sure _Raven_ won't see it that way." His eyes met hers through the mirror and she used every ounce of effort that wasn't being used to keep her bladder in check to pour hatred and threats of unimaginable torture into a steady glare. It must not have been that steady though, because he just chuckled to himself and gave his attention back to the road.

Robin's head jerked up, a grin spreading across his lips in a dangerous look normally saved for super villains. "Hey BB, it's getting a little warm in here, don't you think? You want some _water_?" He held back a full bottle of spring water and shook it, the water sloshing around in agonizing waves.

Beast Boy's eyes grew wide and he reached forward for his new toy. He ripped of the lid and took a couple of gulps before closing it and wiping the excess liquid off his lips. He leaned back in his seat and sighed contentedly. "That's some good water. Want some Raven?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're getting dangerously close to your deathbed right now." Her threat came out in a barely audible whisper as she concentrated on keeping her anger in check. Were they really that bored? That immature?

"Careful how fast you drink that man. Don't want to end up stuck in a car with a full bladder." Cyborg laughed at his own joke, Beast Boy joining in.

Okay, they were getting a little too blunt.

"Please, I do not understand why you make the statements of liquid."

Oh please, don't bring Starfire into this. Shutupshuptshutupnow.

"It's a game Star," said Cyborg. "Say as many water related things as you can think of."

Dear god no.

Her face scrunched up in thought as she brought a finger to her lips. Unlike Beast Boy, Starfire wasn't pretending to think about her next words. She drew in a deep breath and Raven prepared herself for what was to come next.

"I can think of the running tap for washing dishes, the fall of waters, there is also the rushing river and the water dish for Silky and the tub of baths and the running showers and the-"

"THAT'S IT! Stop the car."

Raven could feel tendrils of black energy snaking their way out of her cloak. She didn't care.

"Uh, Raven… You sure-"

"Stop. The car."

One of the tires blew, jerking the car and forcing Raven to pull bladder control out of thin air in an attempt to keep things decent. Cyborg looked frightened while Robin tried to reason. "Look, Raven. We were just kidding around. Friends do that kind of thing all the time…"

"Stop. The. Car." She all but growled. At this point she wouldn't be surprised if her eyes had started to glow red. The others certainly looked frightened enough.

It wasn't her desire to draw attention to herself and alienate herself from her friends, but as Cyborg pulled the car to the side to the road, Raven reasoned that desperate times certainly did call for desperate measures.

Needless to say, the boys never forgot that it was generally a bad idea to pick on a severely over hydrated half-demon.

_The End._


End file.
